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Canton (Guangzhou) Trading System (around 1796)
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Explain why the British were unhappy with the Guangzhou (Canton) trading system. At the time of the first opium war, the British had to deal with large tariffs, bribes, and taxes, being restricted to a single port with many living restrictions, and an alien system of law. For a majority of the time preceding 1760 all ports were technically open to British trade, however they faced the same restrictions as Guangzhou . Starting in 1757 the Chinese government imposed large duties at Ningpo and other northern ports making them heavier than Guangzhou in order to restrict trade. In 1759 James Flint, a British merchant, defied custom by writing a memorial directly to Emperor Ch’ien-lung defying custom. In response the emperor restricted all British Trade hence forth to Guangzhou. At Guangzhou the British had a series of difficulties. Guangzhou was an old port full of corruption. The East India Company’s first ship to the port in 1689 had to pay a “gratuity” of 300 taels to the local customs officer. An incoming British ship had to pay measurement fees, the tariff on goods, and gratuities. After 1727 the measurement fees and gratuities were fixed and the tariffs remained reasonably low between 2 and 4 percent, though customs officials frequently charged twice as much . The British were unhappy with largely fluctuating customs dues in what they considered to be a time of free trade and as a result they strove to change the system. Because the Chinese Government believed that trade was a privilege and not a right of foreigners, the British were forced to submit to a series of certain rules. Governor-genreral Li Ssu-yao first put a set of Five Regulations into practise in 1759. Many additions were made to these and by the early 19th century trade was very controlled. British Traders were firstly only allowed to be in Guangzhou during the trading season (October to January). The rest of the time they had to return to Macao or go home. When traders were in Guangzhou they were forced to reside in the 13 foreign factories. They were only allowed to leave these factories on the 8th, the 18th, and the 28th, of the month to visit the flower gardens. The British traders were not allowed to bring any women into Guangzhou. In 1830 three foreign women sneaked into an English factory and Chinese authorities threatened to stop trade until the women left. Because of this most traders usually left their families in Macao. Foreign traders were also only allowed to sell their goods through the Co-Hong, a group of Chinese merchants. When a British ship came into Guangzhou it had to sell its goods to the assigned Co-Hong merchant and was not allowed to go anywhere else. Frederic Wakemen, Jr. argues that another source of unhappiness among the British was that they were always referred to as inferiors. All British requests to the Chinese government had to be passed through the Co-Hong merchants. Generally the answers were deprecating and the traders were referred to as “barbarian headman” . There was no state-to-state diplomacy between China and Britain and this made it extremely difficult to address any problems the British were having. The British were also very uneasy about the Chinese Law. Britons only came under Chinese jurisdiction if they killed a Chinese person, accidentally or otherwise. British and Chinese methods of punishment greatly differed. Chinese law allowed for the family or others considered responsible of an alleged criminal to be punished for the crime. Chinese law also did not involve a trial by jury and often the accused was tortured.
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